Stewart Continues Torrid Pace With Ventura Victory

Tony Stewart took a step closer to his goal of winning both the USAC Western States Midget Championship and the USAC National Midget Championship by posting another convincing 30-lap main event victory Saturday night at Ventura Raceway.

The Indianapolis native has three victories and three second-place finishes in six races this season, and has won two of the three events held at Ventura.

The victory gives Stewart 199 points this year, 48 more than John Cofer of Macdoel, although that margin probably won’t hold up. For the next six weeks Stewart will chase the national title in a series of races in the Midwest.

At the start, it seemed Stewart might have his work cut out for him, as seven-time Western State champion Ron (Sleepy) Tripp started in the pole position.

“I was worried going into the main about what trick I was going to pull out of my hat (on the start),” Stewart said. “There wasn’t anything I could do to outsmart him. Just do the best I could and let the cards fall where they may.”

Tripp jumped the gun at the outset, causing officials to order a restart.

On the restart, Tripp took the lead going into the first turn, but Stewart was close enough to bump Tripp out of his way and take command coming out of turn two, at which point the outcome was pretty much determined.

“After I jumped him the first time and they called it back, it gave him the better start,” Tripp said. “But it still would have been tough to hold him back, because he’s real fast.”

Phoenix native Billy Boat, who won the feature race last week, put up a late charge to finish second--one-third of a lap behind Stewart. Cofer was third after passing Tripp on the last lap.